Is the answer incorporating termination services into the public health system?
Ireland recently voted to make abortion legal nation-wide, while Tasmania’s last abortion clinic shuts down.
Tasmanian women wanting to terminate a pregnancy must now travel to the Australian mainland, which not only adds unnecessary costs but also means going through the procedure away from home and often alone.
Abortion clinic Marie Stopes Australia has seen the number of women travelling from Tasmania to Melbourne for terminations increase from two to 10 per-month since the closure.
Consequently, debates have been circulating about making termination services part of the public health system.
Marie Stopes CEO Michelle Thompson told the ABC “we would like to work with state health [in Tasmania] in establishing a clinic similar to the arrangements we have in WA where we work very closely with government to fund services to enable women access to surgical services”.
Tasmania is not the only state being criticised over its lack of abortion services. In Queensland and New South Wales, abortion remains a criminal offence.
While Queensland is looking at changing the law at the end of the year, local Queensland general practitioner Sian Hebron says limits on who can get procedures done, where, and with what costs is still a major problem.
“When and if the laws change, patients are still looking at needing to attend private clinics where the costs can be quite cumbersome and in some cases, far away,” says Dr Hebron.
Dr Hebron believes part of the solution is to incorporate procedures into the public health system.
“By moving from a private to public health care procedure, it makes it harder to discriminate against patients. It would also be more accessible and affordable no matter what state you’re in.
“Unwanted pregnancies affect society if they turn into unwanted babies, or if they are born to parents ill-equipped to care for them,” she says.
“Social, fiscal and health problems can be detrimental consequences of unwanted pregnancies, which not only affects the individual and their child, but society as a whole.”
(Featured Image: Marie Stopes Reproductive Health Clinic on Dandenong Road, St Kilda East, August 9, 2018. Photo: Portia Conyers-East)
